July 20th
by cjulina
Summary: While celebrating a holiday from Earth's future honoring an event from Earth's past, Jack recounts where he was on July 20, 1969.


July 20th

A/N: Dedicated to my father because 1) when I was young, he bought me a telescope and showed me the beauty and mystery of the universe, 2) he sent me to the very first Space Camp [only because he was too old to attend himself], and 3) he introduced me to the fantastic movie _The Dish_ (from which I was inspired to write this story after viewing it for the 100th time). Thank you, daddy. This one's for you.

A/N 2: I'm playing loose with the Torchwood timeline (specifically when Gwen was hired, when Tosh and Owen died, and the time period Jack was off with The Doctor). Just bear with me. I didn't want the "what happened whens" to interfere with the overall story.

OOO

_I will not cry this time. I will not cry._ Gwen braced herself, turned the corner, and broke down in tears. _They've been gone for more than two months and I still can't look at the tourist office without breaking down._ She quietly entered the building, surprised to not find Ianto lurking there. Since Tosh and Owen's deaths, he could almost always be found puttering (hiding) in the fake office when his presence wasn't required elsewhere. Still, Gwen was grateful. His absence meant she could clean up her tear-streaked face without an audience, and bolster herself for the next, and harder, step ... entering the Hub.

As the cog wheel began rolling open, Gwen took a deep breath. Since that fateful day, the Hub's atmosphere had become gloomy and oppressive, with Ianto and Gwen given to bouts of tears at the slightest reminder of their loss. As depressed as the two of them had been, Jack had become practically morose. There was no joy, no flirting, no emotion at all. It was as if he had died along with Tosh and Owen. She lived in fear that she would enter one day to find Jack had taken off, to be with his mysterious Doctor, rather than face the day to day reminder that half his team was gone forever.

_I will not cry. I will not ..._ She stood in amazement at the transformation that had taken place in the Hub. Tiny replicas of rockets, space shuttles, test jets from the early days of NASA, and satellites hung from every possible point. There was a long table covered with a space-themed cloth and a screen and film projector set up near the water tower. "What's all this?"

Slightly muffled and sounding more than a little harried came Ianto's voice in response. "Gwen? Oh, thank goodness. Come steady this will you?"

She hurried round her desk to find Ianto standing atop a teetering ladder, a bunch of fairy lights clutched in one hand. She managed to grab the ladder just before it toppled over.

"Thank you. Death by falling off a ladder while hanging fairy lights is not how I want my death certificate to read. A bit too undignified. I'm hoping for a much more heroic ending to my life."

Gwen gave a slight gasp and felt tears threaten to fall.

"Sorry. It's too soon for jokes like that. I apologize." There was no doubting Ianto's sincerity.

She hastily wiped away the tears. "No, it's fine. It's still ..." Her voice trailed off quietly.

Ianto smiled. "I know. Though, they wouldn't want us moping, especially not today."

"What's so special about today?" she asked as he finished hanging the last of the lights.

He stopped halfway down the ladder, looking at her with astonishment. "It's July 20th."

"Yeah, and?"

Once at the bottom, he leaned against the ladder. "That's right! You haven't had the experience yet. Last year, we didn't celebrate because Jack wasn't here and this really is for his benefit. And you weren't hired until August the year before." He gave her a brilliant smile. "You're in for a real treat, Gwen."

"So what's the occasion?" she asked as she followed him back to the center of the Hub.

He was looking critically at all the decorations. "Hmmm? Oh, no, I'm not ruining it for Jack. He _loves_ educating people about Giant Leap Day."

"Giant what day?"

He gave her a mysterious smile. "Hold onto your curiosity a bit longer. All will be revealed when Jack gets back. Decorations are perfect. We should have just enough time to set out all the food and drink before Jack gets back."

Gwen was setting down the last platter when Jack came rushing into the Hub.

"Ianto! I think they finally got it right! Look at this." He set a large rectangular box on the end of the table and triumphantly opened the top to reveal the contents.

She glanced over curiously and found her stomach rolling a bit. "It's grey! It's a cake with blah light grey and even blah-er dark grey frosting. It looks revolting."

Jack gave her a frown. "Of course it's grey. What color did you think it would be?" He started bouncing up and down in excitement when Ianto approached with a small steel box in his hands. "The bakery finally got it right. Look. It's an almost perfect representation of Tranquility Base."

"Very impressive. Here, I'm sure you want to do the honors."

"Careful," he said as accepted the container from Ianto. He opened the steel case, tenderly lifting out a model of the Apollo 11 landing module. "I made this back in 1969."

"Yes, I know." Ianto smiled indulgently while Jack moved the model around, carefully working out the perfect location before setting it onto the frosting.

Gwen looked at the cake, all the decorations hanging around the Hub, and finally put two and two together. "Why are we celebrating the Apollo landing?"

"It never fails to amaze me how blasé this century is when it comes to space exploration," Jack said as he walked over to the sofa. Gwen winced slightly when he hooked a foot around Owen's chair and positioned it in front of the sofa. While she took a seat on the couch, he straddled the chair. "Sending men to the moon was the single most important scientific advancement that's been done to date. It was a time when science was bold. When the things only imagined became reality. Mankind didn't even know _if they could _get men to the moon. And yet, two flights later the world was bored with the missions. Until the explosion on Apollo 13, that mission was just a footnote on the evening news casts."

Jack got that far-away, wistful look, the expression which meant he was about to reveal something about the future. Gwen leaned forward eagerly, hoping he would be less cryptic than normal. For once, her eagerness was rewarded.

"There'll be a time in the future when humans will spread out amongst the stars. When colonies will be founded on more planets than you can imagine. Each colony will be different. They'll establish their own governments, create their own traditions, new customs and societal identities. They'll eat different foods, sing different songs, tell different tales. But there's one thing every colony will have in common ..."

"Yes," Ianto dryly interjected as he took his place on the sofa. "They'll all be human."

Jack gave him a mock scowl. "Okay _two _things in common. They'll all be human colonies, mostly anyway, _and_ they will all celebrate one holiday at the same exact moment. Think of it, Gwen. Every person in hundreds and hundreds colonies throughout the galaxy all stopping at the same exact moment to remember the same momentous event."

"Giant Leap Day," she said excitedly. Jack's enthusiasm was infectious. "As in 'a giant leap for mankind'."

"Exactly."

Ianto reached for a large bag set at the end of the sofa. "It wouldn't be a holiday celebration without silly hats." He handed Gwen a bright green one that had a small replica of a module attached to it. "I thought the Vostok 6 would be appropriate for you, Gwen. It's an exact copy of the space capsule that carried the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, into space."

He stood and handed Jack a red hat. "Yours is the Apollo 11's docking module."

While Jack eagerly put on his hat, Ianto pulled out the last one. Jack's eyes widened at the tall rocket replica. "That's the Apollo 11 rocket."

"Yep," Ianto said playfully.

"It's very phallic." Jack paused to lick his lips. "You know you can _dock_ with me anytime you want."

Eyes twinkling, he teasingly said, "I do believe it's the module which docks with the rocket."

"I can arrange that."

"I'm sure you will, Jack. Now, who's for drinks?" He left before either could reply.

Gwen sank back into the sofa and adjusted her hat. "So what was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"To be there, in the middle of it all? To be at the launch of Apollo 11?"

Jack looked at her quizzically. "What makes you think I was there?"

"Of course you were there," Gwen said confidently. "If you consider this to be the most momentous event of this era, you would have done anything to be there to experience it for yourself."

"Oh, I was doing something more important," he replied cryptically. He perked up when Ianto returned, a silver tray with three champagne flutes in his hand. "So what's the special drink you concocted this year?"

Holding the tray out to Gwen, he answered, "NASA Mimosas." After Gwen had taken her flute, he served Jack. "I used Tang instead of orange juice." He moved to stand behind Jack.

"You do know that it's a common misconception that NASA developed Tang, don't you?" Jack was unaware that Ianto was perfectly mouthing the words as he spoke. "It was actually developed by William A. Mitchell for the General Foods Corporation in 1957. Sales of it were poor until NASA used it on John Glenn's Friendship 7 flight."

He stopped his lecture when Gwen started giggling at Ianto's antics. "Are you mocking me?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Of course." He raised his champagne flute. "A toast to the intrepid men and women who made space exploration possible."

Gwen and Jack raised their glasses and then in unison all three took sips ... and promptly spat the liquid back into their glasses.

"Not my best idea," said Ianto sheepishly. "I'll do better next year."

As Ianto returned to sit on the sofa, Gwen asked, "So, Jack, if you weren't at the Kennedy Space Center, where were you on the launch day?"

"Standing in the middle of a sheep paddock in New South Wales, Australia."

Gwen burst out laughing. Her laughter continued until she realized that Jack was quite serious. "Why were you in a sheep paddock?

Jack rested his arms along the back of the chair he straddled. "Tell me, Gwen. What was just as important as getting Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon?"

"Getting them back safely?"

Ianto snickered and Jack straightened up defensively. "The two of you are ganging up on me today. All right, Gwen. I'll give you that. So what was just as important as getting them to the moon _and _back safely?"

She thought for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders.

"The images, Gwen. The images! How many people would have believed that man had actually walked on the moon if they hadn't been able to see if for themselves?"

"I guess very few, if any. And that's why you were in Australia?"

He grinned smugly. "It's all thanks to me that on July 20, 1969 one-fifth of the world's population, six hundred million people to be exact, were glued to televisions all across the planet and witnessed man place that first footprint on the moon."

"But why a sheep paddock?"

"Because in the middle of that paddock is where the Parkes Radio Telescope, or _The Dish_ as it is more commonly known, is located. It's the largest radio telescope in the Southern hemisphere. Originally, Armstrong and Aldrin were scheduled for a sleep break before taking the EVA which would have meant that Parkes was in perfect alignment to receive the TV signals."

Ianto gave an inelegant snort. "Whoever came up with that timetable was a bloody idiot. Yeah, I've just landed on the moon so let's take a nap."

"But Armstrong overrode that notion," Jack continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Fortunately, it took so long for them to put on their space suits and depressurize the module, Parkes was able to get the television signal after all."

"Okay. I get all that but that still doesn't explain why you were in Australia."

Jack's face took on a wistful, somewhat sad expression. "When I was a young boy on the Boeshane Peninsula, we'd celebrate Great Leap Day every year but the images we would see from the moon walk are very different from the ones you and Ianto remember."

Gwen tilted her head curiously. "Why's that?"

"Because I changed history. Until I intervened, Parks was destroyed just before the module landed. Humans never got to see those first moments on the moon. The only footage available was what Goldstone in California could capture while the moon was in the Northern hemisphere."

Gwen's gap-teeth were visible when her mouth formed an "o" of surprise. "Aliens tried to destroy the telescope to prevent mankind being inspired by the feat?"

"Nothing so Torchwoodian, Gwen," Jack laughed. "Wind. Wind was the enemy this time. The upper safety limits at Parkes was thirty knots per hour. Any time the wind got over ten knots, the boys at the dish would stow it in a neutral position. Just as the moon walk was starting, Parkes experienced winds in excess of 110 kilometers per hour. Those brave men manning the telescope tried to keep the dish pointed at the moon despite the danger and were killed when it came crashing down. I couldn't let that happen so I went there and reinforced the structure with tech from the future, from my time. The dish held and the world was able to see Neil Armstrong set that first footprint on the moon's surface."

"Wow!" was all Gwen could say.

Ianto's watch started beeping. "It's time, Jack. It's nearly the exact moment of the moon walk."

Gwen followed the two men and watched silently as Ianto turned on the film projector. She found herself filled with a renewed excitement as a clip of the Apollo 11 launch began playing. "God speed," she uttered quietly as the rocket lifted from the pad. She felt less foolish when Ianto murmured "Amen," in reply.

As the film moved from the launch to a news clip of Walter Cronkite crying out "go, baby, go" as Apollo 11 rocketed into space, Gwen, Ianto, and Jack cheered in agreement. Then a hush fell about the Hub as the famous words "the Eagle has landed" issued forth. And as the grainy images of Neil Armstrong exiting the module played in front of her, Gwen felt as if she was seeing it for the first time. Indeed, it was like the first time for she would no longer take for granted the awesome and astonishing feat that man achieved on July 20, 1969.

When the film finished playing, the three stuffed themselves on rocket dogs, _The Moon is Made of Green Cheese_ cheese nibbles, and other space-themed foods. They laughed and joked and listened to Jack tell of other early space flight tales. When Ianto turned on some music, she danced with him to _The One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater_ before Jack whirled her around to Elton John's _Rocket Man_. When the music slowed and Jack pulled Ianto into his arms to sway to Frank Sinatra crooning _Fly Me to the Moon, _Gwen took that as her cue to slip out of the Hub.

She stepped out into the dark night, looking up at the bright twinkling stars. _If there is life after death, I hope Tosh and Owen's spirits are up there discovering the mysteries and beauty of the universe. "_Happy Giant Leap Day, guys," she quietly whispered.


End file.
